Copyright 2004, 2005 – All rights retained by author
Written by: Craig W. Booth
Before reading the following questions and answers about the doctrines and philosophies of Christian Hedonism, you may wish to read the article A Biblical Study of the Theological Foundation of “Christian Hedonism” . That article provides a deeper elaboration of where the philosophy of Christian Hedonism is in apparent conflict with Scripture..
Each of the questions and answers below discuss in a general way the doctrine of Christian Hedonism as defined in the books Desiring God and Dangerous Duty and compares those concepts with the Scriptures. Of a certainty no one will agree with all the opinions offered, however, it is hoped that a sincere questioning of the published philosophies will drive Christians back to the Bible to dig out the answers for themselves to resolve lingering questions or concerns.
Question 1.
How do you define “hedonism” and “pleasure”?
Answer 1.
The American Heritage Dictionary defines pleasure as:
1. The state or feeling of being pleased or gratified 2. A source of enjoyment or delight 3. Amusement, diversion, or worldly enjoyment 4. Sensual gratification or indulgence 5. One’s preference or wish
Virtually all the dictionaries I consulted define pleasure as an emotion (a feeling) that is pleasing, is gratifying, is enjoyable, and is delightful to the one experiencing the pleasure. One should not be alarmed at the use of the word “sensual” in the definition, for all that means as used here, is that pleasure always involves the senses (hearing, seeing, touching, tasting, smelling). For example, we read in the Psalms that the author felt delight at reading the Law, and this can be said to be sensual (pleasing to the sense of sight for the reading while also being a pleasant emotional experience).
The Encarta Dictionary defines it similarly, and reads in part: “a feeling of happiness, delight, or satisfaction”.
So pleasure is an emotion or a physical sensation that feels good.
Hedonism is defined by the same American Heritage Dictionary as:
1. Pursuit of or devotion to pleasure, especially to the pleasures of the senses.
2. Philosophy: The ethical doctrine holding that only what is pleasant or has pleasant consequences is intrinsically good.
3. Psychology: The doctrine holding that behavior is motivated by the desire for pleasure and the avoidance of pain.
Hedonism is the pursuit of, or devotion to, pleasure. If we rely on our dictionary definition of pleasure, we can say that “hedonism” is “the pursuit of, or devotion to, the state or feeling of being pleased or gratified.
In other words, hedonism is devotion to (living for) a feel good emotional state or physical sensation.
That is the textbook / dictionary definition of “pleasure” and “hedonism”. In the Greek language the word for “enjoy oneself” (pleasure) is “hedone”, the root of the English word, hedonism. It is found in Luke 8:14, Titus 3:3, 2 Peter 2:13, and James 4:1, 4:3. Hedone is never used in the Bible as a positive expression of the joy or delight found in the Lord.
At its worst, hedone is the Greek root word that is joined to the primitive word “philos” (beloved) to create the concept of a “lover of pleasure” (philedonos). This word, to my knowledge, is only used in the single passage, “treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” (2 Timothy 3:4). When someone is called a lover of pleasure it is always set against being a lover of God. The Scriptural implication is that one cannot be a pursuer or lover of pleasure and a lover of God. Hedonism, being in love with pleasure, is a horrid and wretched state in the Scriptures.
Focusing a moment on more wholesome concepts, the positive expression for joy and delight is the Greek word “chara”. Of the 59 times chara (joy, delight) are used in the New Testament, it is never used to mean “pleasure” much less hedonism.
In fact, even passages that describe God?s actions as being according to His “good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13, Colossians 1:19) most often do not mean “according to His ?pleasurable? emotional state” but rather means “according to His ?kind intentions? or ?good thinking / good thoughts?.
Nonetheless, we do have a proposition with which to reckon. Dr. Piper has introduced a new catch phrase based on an English word, hedonism, which itself is founded on a Greek word that always means love of illicit pleasures. By adding the word “Christian” to hedonism, he wishes to sanctify the word and change it from something evil to something most sacred. However offensive, or even seemingly uninformed, this linking of the name of God?s Anointed One with “lover of illicit pleasure” might be as a catch phrase, it is the “new” meaning that must also be more fully explored.
In his book, Desiring God, Dr. Piper defines his catch phrase, “Christian Hedonism”, this way:
My old Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary of 1961? defines “hedonism” as “a living for pleasure.” That is precisely what I mean by it. If the chief end of man is to enjoy God forever, human life should be a “living for pleasure.” ?
It is a general term to cover a wide variety of teachings which have elevated pleasure very highly. ?
I would be happy with the following definition as a starting point for my own usage of the word: Hedonism is “a theory according to which a person is motivated to produce one state of affairs in preference to another if and only if he thinks it will be more pleasant, or less unpleasant for himself.”
From the start we can see that Christian Hedonism has three fundamental elements that are identical to the English and Greek word hedonism.
1) hedonism (Christian or not) is a loving of, and a living for, pleasure (pleasure being a good feeling, pleasant emotional state, or pleasant physical sensation)
2) pleasure is “elevated very highly” as a priority and a goal to be chased
3) the one to be pleased is man, “for himself”
Dr. Piper also writes:
“By Christian hedonism ? I mean that pursuing the highest good will always result in our happiness. But all Christians believe this. Christian hedonism says more, namely, that we should pursue happiness with all our might. The desire to be happy is a proper motive for every good deed, and if you abandon pursuit of your own joy you cannot please God.” (quoted from www.desiringgod.org on May 29, 2003, emphasis in original)
So what is the difference between “Christian Hedonism” and hedonism? To explain the difference, Dr. Piper also writes:
“The pleasure Christian Hedonism seeks is the pleasure which is in God himself.”
The implication is that it is acceptable, and not just acceptable, but required to pursue our pleasure in God as our highest motive for all things we do on Earth. Many self-avowed hedonists have written to me to point out that the phrase “in God himself” is the key. They assert that the desire and single-focused energy invested in attaining the pleasant emotional state for themselves is validated by the fact that the source-object of their pleasure is God.
Dr. Piper does write elsewhere that it is not really the pleasure itself that men should pursue, but that it is God Himself that men should pursue. This argument is largely without meaning because more often than not Dr. Piper himself reverts to saying it is really the pleasurable experiences that we should be seeking in such emotions as “joy”, “feelings of the heart”, “delight”; and such as those we experience when we are “transported (perhaps only for seconds) above the reasoning work of the mind and we experience feeling without reference to logical or practical implications.”
Christian Hedonism, just as does hedonism, has as its goal to experience pleasure (though more often it is an emotion of feeling good instead of a physical sensation). The primary difference between the two philosophies is whether the pleasure is derived “in God” or not.
As one final example that Dr. Piper most often genuinely means that the attainment of emotional pleasure is the end goal of Christian Hedonism, we read in Chapter 3 of Desiring God that “Christian Hedonism does not put us above God when it makes the joy of worship its goal.” Dr. Piper also wrote in the Introduction of the same book: “I came to see that it is unbiblical and arrogant to try to worship God for any other reason than the pleasure to be had in him.”
Since both hedonism and Christian Hedonism have as their goal to obtain the most pleasurable experiences possible for the individual, they differ only in that hedonism?s pleasure is obtained through actions that are purely at the moral discretion of the individual, and Christian Hedonism would argue that one?s pleasure is obtained only through those acts which God has approved in His Word as being moral.
What is left on the table is the single most important question. Does God want us to seek / pursue our own pleasures as our highest priority (our chief duty and purpose in life), or, does He want us to pursue our love for Him (pursue His righteousness and His kingdom) as our most important motivation and priority on Earth and simply accept the outcomes of that pursuit, whether or not they are immediately pleasing?
To my mind, I am fully convinced by the Word that we are to seek first to love, fear, and obey God as He reigns over His Kingdom and then to seek to imitate His righteousness and imitate His love for our neighbors. I am also fully convinced by the Word that God will grant us the ability to be grateful for all that He has given us, to grant us to delight in Him, in His Word, and in His ways only after we seek to fear and obey Him. In such an economy there is little room for living for oneself or one?s own pleasure. As for me and my household we will serve the Lord and we will strive not to live for ourselves or our own pleasures but to live for Christ.
Of course, the Christian Hedonist will reply, “but I too will live for Christ by seeking to experience pleasurable emotions through Him.” Perhaps. However, to my eye, to my ear, and to my mind, I see those not as comparable priorities, but different ones entirely that compete with each other. And to my knowledge I find no passage of Scripture which would permit the elevation of the pursuit of my pleasure so highly as to compete in priority with my love and service to God.
One of us will say, “I will glorify God by enjoying myself in Him as my highest priority,” and one of us will say, “I will love God and my neighbor as my highest priority and in so doing will glorify God.” We must each be fully convinced which of these philosophies is most highly commended to us by the Word He has uttered from His own lips.
